Horrendous challenge brings call for lengthy ban

Rubén Rayos' appalling challenge on Rafi Dahan has brough calls for him to be given a lengthy ban.

Just a week after a Vietnamese player was banned for 28 matches for an appalling leg-breaking challenge on an opponent, an equally violent lunge resulted in one player receiving his marching orders while another departed the pitch on a stretcher.

Spaniard Rubén Rayos crashed into Rafi Dahan with a terrifying intensity during Maccabi Haifa’s 2-2 draw with Bnei Yehuda. If anything the shuddering challenge was worse than the one that resulted in Tran Dinh Dong receiving his record ban.

Dahan, understandably, was bitter afterwards, saying: “Rayos tried to end my career… I will never forgive what he did to me. Its a crime.”

Rayos was shown a red card and there have already been calls for him to be banned for as long as Yehuda is out injured.

There is a growing movement in football for the punishment to fit the crime, which is all well and good. But what happens if a player suffers not just a career-threatening injury but a career-ending one? Would that also mark the end of the perpetrator’s career?